Lobbydog...

Wednesday, 3 December 2008

Was it me or were Speaker Martin’s hands shaking while he tried to fob blame off for the Damian Green cock-up on to the police?

Martin said he had never authorised the police search of shadow immigration minister Green’s office – to gasps and howls in the House.

Apparently the Serjeant at Arms had signed a consent form without ever having asked if there was a search warrant – which it turns out there wasn’t.

Martin said the police did not explain, as they are required to do, that the Serjeant was not obliged to consent to the search or that a warrant could have been insisted upon.

Maybe the police were in the wrong, but surely the Serjeant at Arms should have known the rules too.

Anyone who has ever seen The Bill knows when the police come to search your place the first question you ask is: “You got a warrant?”

And if Martin didn’t know about the search then he should have done. It’s no good saying his underlings didn’t tell him, that just shows there is a huge communication problem among the Commons authorities.

Either way Lobbydog says the buck stops with him.

The only thing more despicable was watching Gordon Brown dodge questions on what he thought about the whole affair – answering every one with an “I don’t want to pre-judge an inquiry” response.